


Chocolate

by sparrowhawk815



Series: Chocolate [1]
Category: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6300136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowhawk815/pseuds/sparrowhawk815
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dante wants to go to prom. Ari is reticent...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chocolate

Chocolate

Chapter One 

 

It was raining hard. After getting home from school, Aristotle Mendoza dumped his dripping backpack on his bedroom floor and fell upon his bed. With a lazy hand he tidied his mop of godawful hair. The phone rang. It was Dante.   
‘Will you marry me?’ Dante asked.  
‘Sure.’   
‘Just checking.’   
‘Guys can’t be married, Dante.’  
‘Not with that attitude.’  
Dante let out a laugh which broke over Ari’s receiver in a wave of static.   
‘What’s this about, Dante?’ Ari asked. He had an English assignment due tomorrow. He had put it off all week.   
‘Maybe guys can’t get married. But you know what they can do? Go to prom. Together.’  
Ari felt suddenly, inextricably sad. ‘No. I really don’t think that’s a good idea.’  
‘Why not?’ Dante’s voice, not hurt, just curious.  
‘Because last time you were kissing someone in public, those bastards fucked up your face. Forever. Do you think I want that to happen to you again, just because of me?’   
‘Ari, you’re making a big deal of this. I don’t care what people do to me, I’-  
‘You’re crazy, Dante.’  
‘Ari’- But Ari had hung up. 

 

Friday afternoon. Still raining. Dante swung by on his bicycle. He threw off his soaking jacket and threw himself into Ari’s arms. To Ari, the touch of a warm body, the taste of Dante’s mouth, was like a forgotten dream- some schoolboy’s dream of summer in a hot country, where people were happy and swam together in the sea. They tossed and turned and lay silent for a few minutes. Ari took off Dante’s T-shirt and leaned his head on his bare chest, breathing in his heartbeat.   
‘How have your nightmares been?’ Dante whispered.   
‘I’ve had them a couple of times. They haven’t been too bad.’ Ari whispered back.   
Dante gave him a squeeze.  
‘What are you painting at the moment?’  
‘I’m painting a seascape,’ said Dante. ‘Ever heard of a guy named Aivazovsky? He’s a really famous painter, I’m trying to emulate him. I got a book on him out of the library.’  
‘That’s cool.’  
‘I love you, Ari.’  
‘I love you, Dante.’  
Ari traced his name on Dante’s back, just like he had done that time out in the desert. He climbed on top of him and kissed him tenderly. Dante’s smile, his tongue, his teeth- these were deep mysteries. His skin was smooth like the taste of milk.   
‘Want some chocolate?’ Ari asked. He reached under his bed for his treasure box and retrieved a candy bar. Dante made to take it, but Ari held him down. He gripped his fingers around Dante’s belt, and undid the buckle.   
‘If you want chocolate, these are gonna have to come off.’  
Dante obediently shimmied out of jeans until he was wearing just his underwear. Ari, could see, at the head of Dante’s thighs, the outline of his treasures- already hard, waiting to be free of their trappings. Dante took the chocolate bar and bit into it with his two front teeth, grinning. Ari fell upon him laughing. 

‘Are you going to school prom?’ Dante’s mother, Soledad, asked him over breakfast.  
‘Nah. I was going to take Legs for a walk,’ Dante said, alternating between spoonfuls of sugar-happy kid’s cereal and pages of his book. Legs barked appreciatively under the table.   
‘Is Ari going?’  
‘He doesn’t even go to my school.’  
‘Maybe you could ask him,’ Soledad said.  
‘I’m running late, I gotta go.’ Dante kissed his mum on the cheek, slung his backpack over one shoulder and headed out the door. Soledad smiled to herself appreciatively, and sank back into an armchair with her coffee. 

Ari had never expected to go, but somehow found himself in the parking lot of Dante’s school on prom night. Dante’s mother had dropped them both there, and Dante had arrived at his door in his best suit with a big grin on his face. He had given Ari a new album- Belle and Sebastian- and even with his mum in the doorway right behind him, he had given him a quick kiss on the cheek when they first saw each other. For some reason, Ari’s dad hadn’t mentioned the prom at all, but on Wednesday afternoon, he had unexpectedly picked Ari up from school to buy him a smart new suit and tie. For all the warmth and appearance of the cloth, and the happiness of Dante, he felt like he was at a funeral.   
‘FAGGOTS!’ someone shouted at them from across the carpark. This was met with a chorus of appreciative guffawing from the gaggle of seniors on the pavement. ‘Woooo!’ shouted some maniacal girl in a too-short dress.   
‘Just ignore them, Ari,’ said Dante solemnly.   
Ari was silent. The seniors filed in to the main auditorium, leaving Ari and Dante alone in the wide blue night. Ari bit his lip.  
‘I can’t do it, Dante. Go in there.’  
‘Are you sure?’  
‘Yeah.’  
Dante threw his head back, taking in the stars. The twilight blueness illuminated his face enough for Ari to see his scars.  
‘I’m sorry, Dante. I know you wanted tonight to be good.’  
Dante was silent for a minute, and Ari half expected him to say something random, about how stars were emblems of the soul, or to say some quote by Alighieri.   
‘Every night with you is good,’ he said. Ari was touched. He held him close, and closer, and suddenly he was kissing him deeply, open mouth, like he’d never kissed anyone before. Like he never would again. It was nothing, a teenage kiss, old news- but to Ari, it felt like what he had always been waiting for, and, with Dante, he felt like he was absolutely free.   
Ari held his hand- the veins of his hand, blood flowing together. Dante smiled. They left the parking lot together, and Ari felt free in his heart.


End file.
